Vibrant Streets DC Forum – Part 1: A Block at a Time – Step by Step Storefront Improvements for a Vibrant Street

Jan 28, 2015 @ 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

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The Vibrant Streets DC Forum, the first in a series of four quarterly forums, will dive deeper into one area of the Vibrant Streets Toolkit, “retail-appropriate.” The forum will give attendees the opportunity to learn from Streetsense’s Director of Interior Architecture, Alex Crawford, about how small storefront design changes can make a big impact on customer attraction, and, ultimately, the strength of a vibrant street. AIA Potomac Valley is pleased to be a partner in presenting the Vibrant Streets series. APA has also partnered with Vibrant Streets to provide 1.0 AICP Continuing Education credit; click here for more information.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the course, participants will be able to assess the safety, sustainability and commercial viability of building storefronts based on the Vibrant Streets methodology — incorporating grading criteria based on site location, design, construction materials, land use and building systems.

At the end of the course, participants will be able to distinguish between building storefronts based on this grading criteria (site location, design, construction materials, land use, etc.) to determine whether a site or street is retail appropriate and safe enough for continued development.

At the end of the course, participants will be able to select building storefront materials and construction processes contributing to measurable gains in 1) perceived safety; 2) enhanced consumer experience and positive emotional response; 3) increased sales/economic performance; 4) reduced energy usage and cost-savings; and 5) occupant health and comfort.

At the end of the course, participants will be able to implement adaptive legal, pre-design, design and material changes to retail storefronts to attract additional customers, eliminate perceived health/safety concerns, reduce energy expenditure, and improve overall performance.

At the end of the course, participants will be able to successfully determine how to make key design decisions and changes to a storefront, including elements of signage, furniture, display materials, lighting, and more, to enhance the quality of a business and vibrant retail street.

Thank you to Platinum Sponsor Landscape Forms and Silver Sponsors Lighting Environments and BroCoLoco for helping to make this forum possible.